Police chief gets A from commission for first year

The police union, by contrast, has hinted at low marks for Correa in its survey

Honolulu Police Chief Boisse Correa's performance for his first full year as top cop was rated as "exceeding expectations and exemplary," according to the results of a performance evaluation released yesterday by the Honolulu Police Commission.

Correa's evaluation comes only days before the expected public release of results from a confidential survey of the Honolulu Police Department conducted last month by the state of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers (SHOPO).

"We have the results of our survey, but we will not publicly release them until next week, Monday or Tuesday," said Detective Alex Garcia, SHOPO's Oahu Chapter chairman.

In early November, when the SHOPO survey was distributed, Garcia said it would likely show dissatisfaction with the way Correa is running the department.

Garcia, who said that more than half of the union's members had completed the survey, declined to comment yet on the commission's evaluation.

Garcia said union officials were meeting with a survey analyst today to review the results, which he said would be given to the mayor, City Council and Police Commission for review before being made public.

In a statement, the Police Commission said Correa was "rated on leadership qualities, managerial skills and communication with the Police Commission."

The commission expects Correa "will continue to effectively lead" the department. It said the chief's "leadership skills, vision and establishment of priorities in Crime Prevention, Traffic Management, Enhanced Community-Based Programs, Homeland Security, Program Accountability, Recruitment and Growth and Efficient Management of Technology are being accomplished to respond to the needs of the public and to maintain safety in our communities."

Last month, SHOPO's Garcia told the Star-Bulletin, "There's a lot of upset people in this department. That's why we're doing a survey, to get their response."

He added, "We're not asking for the chief to be removed, but we're asking for a change in his attitude to work with us and not against us."

In particular, Garcia said he was concerned about the way that officers have been disciplined and had their police powers suspended. As of early November, 44 disciplinary incidents had occurred, Garcia said -- the highest in 10 years, he claimed.

HPD has disputed those numbers and said there is no significant change in the number of complaints or discipline of officers.

Garcia said last month: "They're automatically taking away an officer's police powers. Officers are not getting due process, really, for unsubstantiated issues. It's not safe to come to work. You do something wrong and you could lose your badge, rather than investigate whether something really happened."